Archive for the 'Bali' Category

Bali is big, beautiful, round(ish) and dotted with interesting places to visit — perfect for a road trip. You can circumnavigate Bali in as little as a couple of days or as long as a couple of months, by car or by motorbike. We thought we’d zoom around the island and put together a suggested … read the full post

It’s a difficult pursuit, finding a flaky, fresh croissant in Bali. It makes sense: croissants are not exactly indigenous cuisine and the foreign influence in Indonesia, where there’s any at all, is Dutch, not French. Yet some of us, usually with futile results, persist in trying… And I succeeded at Cafe Moka. The island is … read the full post

Jari Menari, with two branches in Seminyak and Nusa Dua, is one of our top picks for massage in Bali. The all-male therapists are truly well trained, so you actually feel like you’re getting a massage for your particular knots and aches and pains and anatomy, not just a one-size-fits-all rubdown; the style of their … read the full post

Hands up if you stuffed up your new year’s resolutions? Did you try again at lunar new year and still kind of not stay true? Never fear! This Saturday, the day following the dark moon of the spring equinox, is the first day of the Balinese New Year — so you can give it another … read the full post

Hardy’s supermarket in Sanur is one of the few places in Bali I despise. I am driven crazy by how often the prices on their shelves are not actually for the products in front of them, their unapologetic staff, their habit of giving lollies instead of proper change and… Well, I digress. One place is … read the full post

I think the bit where Julia Roberts gets stuck in a traffic jam must have ended up on the cutting room floor, but here’s a nice little video to illustrate the traffic situation in Bali’s cultural heartland, Ubud. No easy solutions, but banning tour buses would be a good start.

In my experience as a six-foot-tall woman, shopping in the enticing-looking boutiques along Jalan Laksmana in Seminyak can be rather disappointing, with not too much available in my size. Shopping for kids, however, is another question entirely. Quite a few lovely shops selling children’s clothes have sprung up in this area over the past few … read the full post

Updated for December 2013: The simple answer to this question is to not ask “how much”, but rather just to ask the taxi driver to put the meter on — that’s what it is there for. But, if you prefer to do it “off the meter” here are the “official” prices from Bali’s Ngurah Rai … read the full post

Street-level massage joints are a dime-a-dozen in Bali, and so too are the high-end US-dollar priced ones. The market in between, where you pay just a little more and get something a little different is where there’s a bit of a gap, but that’s where Cozy, just near Simpang Siur (ten minutes from Kuta on … read the full post

On holiday in Bali and want to get a dental or eye check up? Even if you don’t, it’s good to have contact details on hand for a good dentist and optometrist while travelling just in case something goes wrong – and the prices are great! Dr Retno has a neat, nondescript office that’s easy … read the full post